Taking the customer into account in collaborative design

This article describes the improvement of a model of collaborative design for the ceramic industry. A new stakeholder playing a crucial role is now included in the design process, i.e. the customer. Specifically, we present a pilot validation study for the framework that aims to analyse how the environment, experiences and reference criteria of different types of the customers (commercial dealers, final users, architects and interior designers, etc.) can affect their preferences. Information about these customer preferences could be very useful for designers during the early stages of product development. A multidisciplinary approach to the problem can introduce substantial improvements in defining a truly collaborative design chain

Involvement, Tate and me

The involvement construct has been explored in relation to products, services and leisure but not in an art museum context. The purpose of this paper is to address this theoretical gap by drawing on the marketing and leisure literature to understand members’ consumption of Tate using the involvement construct. Tate, a portfolio of four art museums in the UK has more than 90,000 members that receive a benefits package in return for a membership fee. Data were collected using an interpretive, qualitative approach. 59 face to face semi-structured interviews were conducted with Tate Members during spring 2008. The narratives expose the complexity in exploring the involvement construct and the analysis revealed six new involvement characteristics: 1) Centrality and Pleasure; 2) Desire to Learn; 3) Escapism: Spirituality and Creativity; 4) Sense of Belonging and Prestige; 5) Physical; and 6) Drivers of Involvement. These are discussed in the context of previous studies into museum consumption, services and leisure involvement literature. The authors discuss how these findings may be transferred to other settings and the managerial implications for marketers and membership managers are considered